All day today, this office was a lively place. My old friend and business partner, Andrew, sits across the room from me. Our two employees, Amani and Ashley, work in the office next to ours. The four of us run Launch Education, a tutoring company that Andrew and I own. We work on things. Big things and little things. And we talk, and we procrastinate, and we eat, and sometimes one of us goes outside and paces around the parking lot while talking on the phone.

There are a bunch of other small businesses that work in the same building and there's a constant buzz up and down the hallway.

Now, though, it's 10:50pm and I'm the only person in the building. It's silent here, other than the sound of me typing. I often stay late and work on stuff-- company stuff, writing projects, getting through my inbox. I try to get home with a few hours to spare so I can sit at the piano and work on music stuff, but sometimes if I'm being productive I stay here to ride that wave.

So here I am.

There's an electric tea kettle on the desk in front of me. I bought it three years ago for $24 and still maintain it was the best $24 I've ever spent. I just boiled some water and then decided which tea bag to put in-- black, green, white, or red. Red is my least favorite, but it was closest to me and I haven't had red in awhile. I picked up the can-- Goji Raspberry Green Tea. I noted that what the hell are goji berries and that the word raspberries still has the "p" in it. Screw it, I thought, and I put a tea bag into the cup. Immediately regretting my decision, I peered in and it was clear I could not turn back-- the bag was already a bit wet from the remnants of the previous cup of tea. So I went ahead and poured the water and started sipping at it. It's not bad. But it is still my least favorite of the four options.

All around on the walls are things I like-- maps, timelines, whiteboards. In each case, when we initially put them up they made me very happy. Like almost all happiness, though, it starts out inflated and then deflates down to your default happiness level. So now it's been awhile and I'm very used to all of these things so they no longer provide a boost of happiness above my default level, but I like them nonetheless.

There is a container of cookies on the desk in front of me. Ashley baked the cookies for me and Andrew and brought them in. I had about five of them today, which was too many.

There's a bulletin board on the wall with about 40 business cards tacked to it. Our network of contacts. I'm quite immersed in this thing it seems.

To my left is an assortment of toys that make me happy (though no longer higher than my default level)-- a plastic whale, a hacky sack, a slinky, some silly putty that is too soft now, and a little soft foam red chair with Bank of America's logo on it.

I'm wearing an untucked button down shirt and jeans and I'm barefoot. My feet are freezing. My feet are the primary motivation behind this particular cup of tea.

A girl I know is going to call me soon. This pending call is delaying my decision to leave the office.

And it was in this environment that I decided to sit down and write a blog post.

Which led me to try to figure out what the hell I was doing. So let's continue this investigation.

So the idea is, I think of something I want to get off my chest. Something that has been subconsciously on my mind for days, perhaps for years, and that I want to tell you.

So I dig into my mind for all of the dormant thoughts and opinions that fit into the category of this particular topic and I start writing. Well, not writing exactly-- there's no pen or pencil and no paper. I start thinking and my fingers start moving really quickly. They start dancing around on the keyboard while I watch my exact thoughts appear on the screen of this device in front of me.

(This particular device made me very happy for a few days after purchasing it and this happiness, too, deflated back to the default. You can tell how deep a specific happiness goes by how long it takes before it fails to lift you above your default level. Only the deepest of happiness has the power to alter your default level itself. This happens, but not very often.)

So the thing I had to get off my chest-- that thought now exits my device and travels through the air, thousands of feet above the ground (possibly hundreds of miles-- I'm not sure) into another device, which then directs it to another device somewhere on the surface of the Earth, where it hangs out.

This is where you come in.

Then you go over to your device-- maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe next month-- and your fingers dance around on your keyboard and you order the device where my thoughts are hanging out to send you my thoughts. So it sends a copy of my thoughts through wires and air and into your device where you use your eyes to transmit the thoughts from the screen to your mind.

Then you go and do something else.

And that's really that.

And frankly, the whole thing is a little weird. Bad? Not at all. Just a little odd.

But then, a lot of things are pretty odd.

And the call has come. Plus my feet are freezing. So I'm going to leave it at that.

I'm going to click "Publish Post," and I'll have done my part.

13 comments:

Anonymous
said...

You're keeping me entertained that's why you write you're blogs ;) which I am reading on my device thousands of miles away in the UK procrastinating from buying Christmas presents!

I'm in Brazil, also thousand miles away reading this is my macbook, which is relatively worse than yours. Because yours is the new one. That we haven't got down here yet. Sorry, but tht frustrates me. Anyway..

I'm glad you wrote this, today is a holyday here and I don't have much to do so I decided to come to my device to see if you had anymore stuff to get off your chest and for my surprise, you did.

Now I'm going to spend my day a little happier because of this, and I think that's the final purpose of it all. And the best part, you have all the work, so, thanks.

I am also reading in front of my device all the way here in Hong Kong. I have been reading your work for over a months and I like your style very much.Honestly, I dont know that much about writing in English and I am a chinese, but I learn a lot from your pieces and I guess that it's the reason I am still hanging around.

Why do I read? Because subconsciously you seem like the kind of guy that I could hang out with, sort of like my friends hear on the east coast...even though you are on the west coast and have absolutely no idea who I am, which makes it seem even weirder that I would think that we could be friends in the first place.

Because I like reading your blog. I have read my share of blogs, but there is something about your blog that compels me to come here at least once in a month. I find them rather interested, and sometimes amusing (like the post you just posted!). lol.

I'm here on my device years later, all the way from Delhi. Reading about teabags and tortoises while waiting for the SpaceX post. And I only found this today, and that you were on TV with a now presidential candidate. Please write about that on WBW Tim. I wonder why you didn't, even when you mentioned all about your music and your monkey wanting to tutor and then blog. And I wonder also why American WBWers never mention it in the comments. Anyway this blog is my new favourite thing on the net and I plan to read all of it. Please don't take it down. Some of the pages are missing already making me wanting to rant about it on WBW FB page. But no, I'll just be good and wait for the spaceX post and then savour every word when it arrives. You're awesome|